


Leaf Peeping

by Android_And_Ale



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Cisco knows what to pack for a picnic, Extreme Leaf Peeping: Japan Edition, First Kiss, Leaf Peeping, M/M, Snackbassador, by dawn's early light, harrisco
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-03-10 21:33:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13510203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Android_And_Ale/pseuds/Android_And_Ale
Summary: "What are we really doing here, Ramon?" Harry wanted to sound demanding, but instead of gravitas his words came closer to a hungry growl.Cisco stared into Harry’s eyes while loudly slurping his orange soda. Harry ripped his gaze away from the beautiful scene to glare at him. Now that he had his attention, Cisco winked and put down the styrofoam tub of soda.He fed Harry another pair of fries dipped in spicy ketchup, this time without either breaking eye contact.“Leaf peeping.”Harry almost choked on the fries.





	Leaf Peeping

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Harry's throw-away line about the only hobby he can't suck the fun out of, and this stunningly beautiful post of dawn's light streaming through leaves outside a Japanese temple.
> 
> http://inkxlenses.tumblr.com/post/168621765823/t%C5%8D-ji-during-a-bright-spring-evening-manabe

Cisco straightened the Godzilla t-shirt Wally brought him from Japan. He said the text on it translated to, "My milkshake brings all the monsters to the scrapyard," but Cisco had his doubts. 

He slid up next to Iris, tugging away her empty, forgotten mug of STAR Labs coffee and replacing it with a fresh caramel macchiato from Jitters. She was still in her conservative Prisoner’s Wife Cardigan, having learned to bundle up her body until she was nearly shapeless in order to avoid catcalls from the other prisoners. 

Cisco gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "It's pretty quiet today, boss. Since DaVoe is so obsessed with samurai, I'm going to breach over to Japan with Harry to see if we can find any clues that'll help get Barry out of prison." 

"Good call, Cisco," said Iris. She looked up from her monitors long enough to notice the coffee and shot him a grateful smile. "Bring me back one of those rectangular watermelons."

Caitlin looked up from her own workstation, across the cortex. "Ooh! Can you grab me some of the weird Pocky and Kit Kat flavors you can't find in the states?" 

Wally wandered in, toweling himself off after a run in the speed lab. "Man, just bring me back some KFC.” He disappeared in a streak of lightning, then reappeared with a stack of Yen left over from his last trip. "KFC is so much better in Japan. Oh, and grab us all a bunch of red bean paste buns. I miss those."

Iris scrolled through the metahuman alerts one more time. The worst thing there were a couple pearl clutching complaints about the metahuman busker downtown who could transform the colors in any living plant. She was currently auctioning off a purple and yellow polka dot cactus. 

"It really is pretty quiet. Looks like all the metas in town are at the Black Panther premier," said Iris. She caught Wally’s gaze then nodded towards Cisco and Harry. "Do you want to go with them?" 

"No!" Cisco and Harry chorused

Caitlin, Iris, and Wally all looked up in surprise. Wally’s lips puckered as he gave Cisco a knowing smirk, which Cisco blatantly ignored. 

"You know how Wally and I get if you leave us unsupervised for too long." Cisco shot Iris his biggest, most harmless grin. 

Iris snorted, but tiredly smiled back. "Keep an eye on him, Wells. I expect you both back in time for Sunday dinner at Dad's place."

"Yes ma'am." Harry 

“With those red bean paste buns,” she added. She shot her little brother a genuine grin. “You’re an evil man, Wally West, getting us all addicted to food we can’t buy here in town.” 

Wally shrugged helplessly. “I’m an ambassador of snacks.”

Caitlin looked at Cisco. “If we meet a meta who’s into baking, we could call him the Snackbasador?” She raised her eyebrows. 

Cisco facepalmed. “You gotta stop trying to stockpile names.”

“Oh, please,” she snorted. “You came up with Weather Wizard on Day 1.” 

Still shaking his head in mock disgust, Cisco opened a breech. Instead of crowded downtown Tokyo, as Harry expected, they emerged in front of a peaceful lake in the midst of what seemed to be a massive public garden. A serene temple was nestled on the opposite side of the lake. From this vantage, it seemed surrounded by a romantic, pink and orange haze as sunlight filtered through the branches of cherry trees, branches heavy with leaves and blossoms. 

Cisco picked a leaf up off the ground and handed it to him, smiling gently. 

While Harry was preoccupied with the leaf, Cisco opened his backpack and pulled out a compact thermal blanket. He spread it underneath a tree and unpacked the thermal lunch bag taking up most of his space. Inside was a fresh, hot bag from Big Belly Burger, with two tripple-tripple’s and fries. 

Cisco turned his sunshine grin on him. He reached for Harry's hand, pulling him down onto the blanket. Harry sat awkwardly next to him. Cisco opened a packet of spicy ketchup, dipped in a pair of hot fries, and offered them to him. Harry swallowed hard before opening his mouth and letting Cisco feed him. 

“We’re supposed to be searching for clues to DaVoe’s next move.” Harry’s gaze drifted up to the heavy branches. He stretched out and arm and brushed his fingers across the petals, enjoying the way the gently swaying branch changed the character of the early dawn light. 

“Japan’s 14 hours ahead of Central City,” said Cisco. “Technically, we just worked all through the night. We deserve a relaxing picnic. 

Harry blindly groped for more fries. Cisco’s hand closed around his, guiding him from the salty hotness to the condiment so he wouldn’t have to take his eyes off the scenery. 

"What are we really doing here, Ramon?" Harry wanted to sound demanding, but instead of gravitas his words came closer to a hungry growl. 

Cisco stared into Harry’s eyes while loudly slurping his orange soda. Harry ripped his gaze away from the beautiful scene to glare at him. Now that he had his attention, Cisco winked and put down the styrofoam tub of soda. 

He fed Harry another pair of fries dipped in spicy ketchup, this time without either breaking eye contact. 

“Leaf peeping.”

Harry almost choked on the fries. 

Cisco used this as an excuse to give Harry’s back a hearty Bro-slap, encouraging him to cough it up. He offered Harry a drink of his super sized orange soda. Harry took a sip and winced at the syrupy sweetness. 

“How can you drink this?” he asked. 

“I bleed orange.” Cisco left his hand on Harry’s back, stroking in small, soothing circles. 

“You must taste like candy.” Harry winced internally. That was supposed to sound more like an insult than an invitation.

Cisco pulled a lollipop out of his pocket. “Not until dessert.” He winked. 

Harry stared down at the blanket, the Big Belly Burgers, Cisco’s knee not quite touching his. Then he looked up at the heavy branches perfectly framing their view of the temple across the lake, leaves hazily filtering the light to a romantic peachy pink. 

“Ramon,” his voice was strained. “What is this?”

Cisco swirled a couple more fries in the ketchup, apparently fascinated by the patterns of pink light and shadow directly in front of him. “Depends. Maybe it’s a couple of coworkers taking a hella necessary break from their stupid stressful office. Nature therapy, man.” 

“Or?” Harry still clasped the first leaf Cisco handed him between his palm and thigh. 

Cisco shrugged noncommittally, still stirring the same two fries into the ketchup. His gaze fluttered briefly at Harry, glancing shyly through his lashes before staring back down at the spicy ketchup vortex he couldn't stop nervously swirling. 

Harry leaned in and gently rested his chin on Cisco’s shoulder, inhaling the scent of his strawberry shampoo. Cisco turned his head. Stray hairs caught in both their stubble, creating a mesh like barrier between them as their lips lightly brushed. Harry felt Cisco swallow, hard. Or maybe that was him. 

He reached up to tuck a lock of Cisco’s stray hair out of his ear. The flyaway hairs clinging to both their faces caught, and Cisco winced, laughing. Both of them brushed against their faces, knuckles bumping awkwardly, fingernails occasionally scraping across an eyelid as they tried to push away all the thick black hairs binding their faces together. And somehow they were both laughing at the ridiculousness of neither being able to get the last handful of hairs to release as their hands moved over one another’s faces, fingertips dipping under the hair, mostly tugging outwards but sometimes simply tracing the skin. 

Harry found himself cupping Cisco’s face in his hands, one last stray hair unwilling to abandon its perch over those plush lips. The pad of his thumb brushed over Cisco’s mouth, which involuntarily opened under his touch. Cisco’s head tilted to one side and Harry could feel that this was it; this was when he should pull away and say no, he was too old, too cranky, too broken for his lips to be sliding over Cisco’s, his tongue darting past teeth in search of Cisco’s own - only to be brought short by Cisco’s uncontrollable giggles. 

Harry’s face flushed red as he darkly pulled away. 

Cisco’s arm lashed out, wrapping around his waist and pulling him closer. “No, man, no. Tell me you could think about anything other than those last two damn hairs that ended up in my mouth?” His free hand aggressively pulled the strand away and he glared at it, hanging in the air like a traitor. 

“I didn’t notice,” Harry lied. 

“You are a terrible liar,” Cisco replied, matter-of-factly. “That or you wanted to kiss me so bad you didn’t mind coating your tongue with my leave-in conditioner.”

“Yes,” said Harry. 

Cisco giggled again. He aggressively tugged his hair back, tucking it under both ears until he was satisfied that the flyaways were under some semblance of control. He glanced up again, still grinning, to see Harry dubiously watching him. Cisco swallowed, a little less hard, his features still guarded, but a little less wary, and whispered, “Let’s try that again.”

This time there was no guardian at the gate of Cisco’s mouth. His soft lips parted at Harry’s touch, and soon their tongues met, darting over one another, soft teasing giving way to an eager hunger. Harry leaned into him, forcing Cisco back on his elbows. He wanted to kiss a line down Cisco’s throat, to slide a hand up under his shirt and discover what kind of chest hair was hiding under all those nerdy t-shirts, to suck the warmth of his smile through his mouth until its light shone on all Harry’s dark thoughts, scaring away the demons that had flourished there over the last decade. 

A leaf fell on Harry’s hand. He remembered they were at a public park. In another country. He reluctantly pulled back, dipping in twice more to plant faint kisses on Cisco’s lips. 

Cisco sighed happily. “If this didn’t work I was gonna give up on you. A man can only drop so many hints.” Harry blinked in shock. Cisco stretched his legs on the blanket. He lay one hand on Harry’s shoulder and used the other to pat his lap. Harry let himself be tugged gently down until his head rested on Cisco’s thighs. 

Another leaf fell onto his face. He blinked and it fell to the blanket. Cisco draped an arm along his side, hand dangling off his hip. His free hand dipped a cooling fry in the ketchup. Harry opened his mouth, expecting to be fed. Cisco winked at him and popped it in his own mouth. 

“We’ve got another hour before shops open,” said Cisco. “What do you say we chill here for some Leaf Peeping before we grab those Pocky’s, Kit Kats, and Red Bean Paste Buns.”

“What about West’s KFC?” From Cisco’s lap, Harry could both maintain the tranquil view and dip his own fries. It was perfect. 

Cisco shrugged. “Mijo better hope KFC Japan makes Breakfast Tacos.” He took a deep breath, twisting the fingers of his free hand in Harry's brown curls. “You gotta promise me something when we get back." 

Harry pulled his eyes away from the scenery to give Cisco a quizzical look.

“If we go from nonstop bickering and heart eyes to suddenly acting like normal grown ass adults, everybody’s going to know something is up,” said Cisco. 

Harry sighed. He couldn’t fault Cisco’s logic. 

“When we get back you gotta keep staring at me like you’re the Big Bad Wolf and I’m carrying a basket of sweets to Granny’s house.” 

Harry smiled up at him, all hunger and teeth. “That won’t be a problem.”

 


End file.
